Law and reality in publishing (seldom the same thing) from the author's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into politics, military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.

31 March 2007

Escapism

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the ironies of "escapist literature"... and what that means for different audiences.

Adults want children to read "serious literature" as part of their education. Too often, though, that means literature that preaches an unambiguous moral. For example, one of Shakespeare's weakest plays (both thematically and structurally) is also the most commonly taught play in our schools: Romeo and Juliet. Next up the line, both in weakness and in popularity, is Julius Caesar. Similarly, the schools push good, but black-and-white, books like To Kill a Mockingbird (puns intended) on kids. If one looks at the reading habits of kids who read for pleasure, though, a starkly different picture emerges. Harry Potter and His Dark Materials get read more than once; most of the other "popular" stuff gets read once, if at all. However, because they're "fantasies," they're labelled "escapist"... and not treated as serious literature by those not thoroughly trained in literature. (What that says about Don Quixote  either the Cervantes text or the Menard text, take your pick  is for another time.)

Conversely, when adults-who-read-for-pleasure buy books, they overwhelmingly buy books with distinct choices and no regrets (or, at least, none from any but the rare antihero). The Grishams, Clancys, Steeles, Browns, et al. wouldn't know a moral ambiguity in which all choices have adverse consequences if it slid up their collective leg and bit them on the ass. That is, adults are reading for pleasure precisely the kind of books that they rejected as children.

Why this mirror image? One possible explanation  and I make no claims that this is definitive  is that each class of readers-for-pleasure is seeking to escape from its daily world. The regimented world of children, with schoolwork that always has a correct answer, unyielding schedules, and a rigid place in the family, escapes to ambiguity. Conversely, the confusing, ambiguous world of adults, with choices that almost never have a correct answer, terrifying uncertainty as to what will happen tomorrow, and a constant struggle to establish and keep a social order, escapes to monochromatic certainty.

I'm not at all sure what this implies for the "value" of literature. It sure as heck has some important implications for both the law and the practice of publishing, though.

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Other Blawgs, Blogs, and Journals

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How Appealing is aimed at appellate lawyers and legal news in general. If you care about the state of the law, start here — Howard's commentary is far better balanced, better informed, and better considered than any of the media outlets. To concentrate on the US Supreme Court, don't forget SCOTUSBlog.

Some academics' blawgs with a variety of political (and doctrinal) viewpoints:

The main European IP blawg of interest remains the UK-based IPKat, on a variety of intellectual property issues, with some overlap (with a less Eurocentric view) at IPFinance

The American Constitution Society blawg is a purportedly "liberal" counterweight to the so-called "Federalist Society" (which, despite its claims, should be called "Tory Society") that has yet to establish much coherence... but maybe that's all to the good.

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